While choosing between the prospect of exciting new work and uprooting a family has long been part of the calculus of a job change, the current economic slump is complicating the process.
Specifically, the problem is the house, that once great sign of American success. It is not easy to sell these days and worth a lot less than it used to be.
The difficulty in selling a home has prompted many people to second-guess a move -- and the job offer that precipitated it. Is the job really worth it? What if the job goes away in a year? What happens then?
Jim Carpenter, managing partner at J. Carpenter & Co., a recruiting firm based in Darien, Conn., said he recently had a candidate who would not move to another city for a job even though he was unemployed and had limited prospects where he was.
He said he had another candidate in the mid-Atlantic states who was hesitant about taking a job in New England.
"It's hard for the husband to look his wife and children in the eye and say, 'We're making this move but our house is going to be 30 percent smaller,' " said Carpenter, who has done high-level searches for Unilever, Digitas and Black & Decker.
With unemployment still high, many Americans would love to have the luxury of a job offer. Still, for people whose careers are still chugging along, the home can be a problem.
So how do you address it? What options do you have in a bad housing market? The options vary from not great to pretty astonishing given the economy.
